If light travels at about 93,000,000 km / sec ( i rsaw that somewhere) and it takes about 8min and 18 seconds for light to reach earth ( I also read that somewhere) does that actually means if the sun blew up we would notice it 8 minutes later?
2007-11-03 11:44:02 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
You're quite right. If the sun blew up (or disappeared suddenly), we wouldn't know for 8 minutes.
2007-11-03 11:46:57 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Basically yes. If the sun blew up we wouldn't notice it for 8 minutes.
By the way, light travels at 300,000 km / sec, not 93,000,000. Earth is 93,000,000 miles from the Sun. In kilometers it is 150,000,000 km from the Sun.
150,000,000 km / 300,000 km / sec = 500 seconds = 8 minutes 20 seconds.
2007-11-03 21:27:07 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Morbid thought, isn't it? Even if someone shot a trilithium projectile into the sun, if it destoyed the sun instantly we'd only know an instant before being destroyed by the radiation burst. Even if it started looking funny minutes before, heck even if the sun gave a year's warning, even hiding behind the Earth or Jupiter wouldn't protect a spacecraft from the shockwave. It wouldn't just be the end of the world as we know it, it'd be the end of all life in the solar system.
At least we have a better chance of surviving an asteroid collision, nuclear armageddon, or even the moon falling to Earth.
2007-11-03 19:02:14 · answer #3 · answered by kvn8907 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
not a stupid question at all. yes it would take about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to see it. and slightly longer for the debris to impact earth.
and let me clear up all of the numbers here.
93,000,000 is 1 astronomical unit (AU) and is the distance from the earth to the sun.
about 186,000 MILES per second is the speed of light. also you could use around 300,000 KILOMETERS a second.
hope that helps
2007-11-03 18:55:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
You are right that if the sun blew up, we would only notice it about 8 minutes later. However, the speed of light is actually 300,000 km/s.
2007-11-03 18:50:51 · answer #5 · answered by jenks_1987 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well you maybe right, but actually we would know about, even during the day because we would see it, but in 8 minutes we really couldn't do much, even if we had the technology to evacuate everyone, on the planet. You could see it at night in 8 minutes because the death of our sun would turn night into day. But our sun won't blow up, it might implode, it might burn out, or it will expand and consume the inner solar system and turns into a white dwarf (a small white star.)
2007-11-04 20:30:05 · answer #6 · answered by Plasma 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not a stupid question. Your assumption sounds reasonable to me, unless you're on the opposite side of the earth. It might then take a few more milliseconds for the heat to wrap around the planet destroying the atmosphere, not to mention barbequeing us, or whoever gets those few milliseconds to say, "What the hell wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a............"
2007-11-03 18:58:20 · answer #7 · answered by te144 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Speed of light is actually 198,000 Km/s. But yes we would not know it for 8 min.
Edit: got mixed up. 186,00MILES/s
You are right. 300,00Km/s
2007-11-03 18:49:40 · answer #8 · answered by Charles C 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
in my opinion, no question is stupid.
2007-11-03 18:51:32 · answer #9 · answered by Tony 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋